Open-water swimming sensation Charlotte Samuels has been having a truly memorable summer.
The record-setting 17-year-old attended a summer camp for poets in Minnesota some weeks ago. She's also fresh from a young women's writing workshop at Smith College in Massachusetts.
Plus, in a matter of weeks, Samuels will be back in the swell, doing what she loves most: traversing massive expanses of undulating water in awe-inspiring fashion.
Samuels became the youngest person to complete her sport's Triple Crown when she made quick work of the English Channel in September, after swims around Manhattan and off the coast of California. Since April, she has been training for her next aquatic feat - a 12-hour swim between Long Island and the Jersey Shore. "I'm excited for this swim, which will cap what has been such a great summer," Samuels said. "I can't wait for this swim."
Samuels began plotting her next big swim soon after making history in England last summer.
The Ridgewood High School senior was considering crossing the Strait of Gibraltar between the southern coast of Spain and the northern coast of Morocco. But such a swim would have required years of planning, Samuels said.
Instead, she decided to stay local with her next challenge.
"A woman named Patricia Sener came up with the idea of swimming from New Jersey to Long Island to raise awareness to the plight of the marine life in the New York Bight," Samuels explained. "Her passion inspired me. There are so many places to swim in this region. People come from all over the world to do swims here." The New York Bight is the ocean corner between New Jersey and Long Island.
Samuels has been spending two hours a day preparing for the Aug. 21 swim. Samuels will hit the water in Sea Bright that night and plans to exit the ocean near Atlantic Beach in Hempstead.
"I won't actually know where the swim finishes until I finish," Samuels said. "I just have to finish on the other side. It could be farther west, it could be farther east ... whatever."
For this swim, Charlotte has been working with one of her first coaches, Meaghan Murphy, as well as seasoned swimmers Rondi Davies and Dave Barra.
"I am lucky to have them helping me and giving me their advice," she said.
When not training for her 20-mile swim, Samuels said, she's been working with a book agent to shop around the memoir she's writing.
"It has been a really crazy time," she said, adding that her book, which will provide a timeline of her English Channel swim interspersed with other moments from her life, will have a clear message.
"It is focused towards girls and women who need to know you don't have to be super fast or super good at what you do as long as you love it and have passion for it and put yourself out there," Samuels said.
"I was an average swimmer all my life and was verbally abused by coaches for not being fast enough, but I didn't quit because it was more about loving swimming than being good at it," Samuels said. "When I found open-water swimming, I felt like I belonged. So the point of my book is that you don't have to be extraordinary to do extraordinary things."
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